The original returns were lost in the destruction of the Public Record Office of Ireland in 1922 but some transcripts made by the antiquarian and genealogist, Tenison Groves, have survived.
Freeholders were men who either owned their land outright or who held it in a lease for the duration of their life, or the lives of other people named in the lease.
Records cover 1727 - 1840. The information held in these records is valuable as census material for the 18th and 19th centuries is non-existent and in June 1922 most of the public records of Ireland where destroyed by fire when the Four Courts complex in Dublin was bombed.
These records are searchable and original images viewable. Information varies but may include: freeholder's name, place of abode, name of landlord, address of landlord, value of freehold, names of other lives, occupation of freeholder and religion of freeholder.